I Drew My Ship

You’ll probably know this from Matachin and Jon says, “We pinched this for a rather poppy Bellowhead number, from a very delicate banjo and voice version by Shirley Collins. I think it’s an American version.”

In fact it came from John Stokoe’s Songs And Ballads Of Northern England as you’ll see from the original notes on Mainly Norfolk. Shirley, June Tabor and Eliza have all done fairly similar versions of this and Bellowhead’s follows suit (a lovely arrangement), so naturally does Jon’s. Ossian and Capercaillie have also recorded much longer versions of this, which explore the reasons for the rejections and subsequent regret. This Mudcat thread covers that and more and is interesting about the whole folk process with a section from ‘Borrowing In Celtic Music’ by Alan Moore offering particular insight. Right at the end someone points out thav this has the simple addition of ships to Cocks Are Crowing . We’ve also had the flying fish and melting rocks before, which seems to be a Biblical reference, if only I could remember where!!

You can buy the January digital album now from all good download stores.

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Funny how misleading song titles can be. The only Cocks Are Crowing that I can find in my record collection is indubitably not a night visiting song but witten by Sydney Carter (and on his album Lovely in the Dances which was discussed yesterday).

More affecting than the version on Matachin, though I like that too. The unaccompanied voice goes straight to the heart (if the singer is as good as Jon). I like Eliza Carthy’s ‘The Grey Cock’ for the same reason.

I think the late Tony Cuffe sang the Ossian version. Very distinctive voice from the more nasal end of the folk spectrum.

And I’ve just realized that I was thinking about the wrong Eliza Carthy song. Oops. My excuse is that it’s easy to get lost amidst the all the ghost-returning, the night-visiting, the ship-sailing and, of course, the ghost-returning-night-visiting-ship-sailing songs of the folk canon.

This works really well unaccompanied, beautiful song. I love the Bellowhead version on Matachin, and am hoping it will appear in the set of their forthcoming seated venues tour, as we’ve been promised some of their “quieter” numbers.

this one I am going to learn
I love the complete heartlessness of the lover who can’t wait, his sweetheart walking so slowly to the door
i love the total illogicality of it, the fate that it has to to go wrong
the power game
all human life
and the tune is stunning
and it is sung beautifully